Joint for furniture.



No. 820,689; PATENTED MAY 15, 1906 J. P. WILMOT.

JOINT FOR FURNITURE.

APPLICATION FILED DEO.26,1903.

WITNESSES IWVEWTOR 961/ 72111,

ANDREW, a. GRAHAM 00.. mmumocmmans, wnsnmsmu. n. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOINT FOR FURNITURE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 15, 1906.

Application filed December 26, 1903. Serial No. 186,595.

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, JOHN F. WILMoT, a. citizen of the United States, residing at Detroit, county of Wayne, State of Michigan, have invented a certainnew and useful Improvement in Joints for Furniture; and I declarethe following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanyin drawings, which form a part of this speci cation.

This invention relates to furniture, and has for its object improved means of fastening and securing together the several parts which constitute a complete article of furniture.

The means employed are especially adapted for use in the construction of furniture that is made in whole or in part of metal, and more especially where it is desired to employ tubular parts in connection with braces or spindles and also in connection with flat, straight, or tubular parts. I select a chair structure which contains the three styles ofmembers spoken of as embodying completely the entire lnvention.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective of a chair embodying the several improvements of this invention. Fig. 2 is a detail of the connection between the main back-frame and the top end of a spindle. Fig. 3 is a detail of the joint connection between one of the lower ends of the main back-frame and the seat. Fig. 4 is a detail showing the method of cutting the end of the tube which forms the back-frame of the chair or the upper end of a leg preparatory to bending it to make the joint of Fig. 3. Fig. 5 is an enlarged detail showing the connection between the braces and a leg. Fig. 6 is a detail showing the construction of the joint of Fig. 3. Fig. 7 is a detail showing the end of a tube partly bent to form the joint of Fig. 3. The drawings show a chair construction embodying joint connections between the seat of the chair and the several parts which are used as legs and back-frame so arranged and constructed as to be economical to construct, easy to manufacture, and extremely firm and stable, and in which the joints are made without the use of coupling irons or castings except the rivets or screws employed to secure the parts together.

The stool part of the chair is made with an oval or round seat 1, referably provided with extensions in whic there are notches at the places Where the back-frame 2 engages with the stool part of the seat. The notches 3 and 4 are substantially half-round notches, and in them engages the lower ends of the single bent tube which constitutes the back-frame. The fastening that secures the ends of the tube to the seat of the stool is underneath the seat part of the stool. That part of the seat boundary which lies between the extensions in which the notches 3 and 4 are located is curved for the engagement therewith of braces. The back-frame is braced by spindles 5, 6, and 7, each of which has its lower end bent nearly at a right angle, and is provided with screw-holes 8, through which screws are inserted to secure the lower end of the spindle to the chair-seat. The upper end of each spindle is bent to a hook form or to a half-round with the distance from the end 9 of the hook to the outer surface 10 at the turn of the hook as nearly as possible equal to the internal diameterof the tube which forms the back-frame 2. A round hole with a boreequal to the diameter of the spindle is drilled through the back-frame 2 at 11 where the upper end of the spindle is to enter the tube of the back-frame, and the bent end of the spindle is inserted through the round hole 11 into the interior of the tube, and the spindle is turned until the protruding art of it is substantially at right angles to t e axis of that part of the back-frame which is immediately contiguous to it.

The length of the spindle is sufiicient to extend properly from the upper cross-bar of the back-frame to beneath the seat of the chair, and the lower end is secured by screws through the holes 8. Each end of the back-frame is constructed as shown in different steps in Figs. 6, 7, and 3. The end of the tube is first sawed or split into four equal stave-like parts, the splits extending along the axis of the tube sufficiently to furnish a proper length of bearing. The opposite stave-like parts of the split tube are now bent, the stave part 12 bent outward until it is at the proper angle,

tube to the chair-seat. projections are provided with screw-holes, through which the screws are inserted into the chair-seat on the under side thereof, with the stem or main part of the tube rising in contact with the chair-seat at the curved notches 3 and 4. To further secure the frame-tube 2 to the chair-seat, a screw-hole is bored through both walls of the tube at 16 and diametrically opposite 16, through which a screw may be driven into the edge of the seat. necessary in all circumstances; but it may be used, if desired, as a fastening additional to that obtained by securing the bracket-arms to the bottom of the seat. It furnishes a cross-fastening that revents any possible yielding of the screw- 'astening from frequent lifting of the chair by the back-frame and the consequent vertical pounding that may occur between the back-frame and the seat. The four legs of the stool part of the chair are secured to the under side of the seat by the same character of fastening, and the four legs are braced by rungs 17 and 18. (Shown in detail in Figs. 4: and 5.) To make this fastening, diametrically-op osed holes are bored through the tube whic forms the leg, each of the two ends of the rungs is finished to a halfround, and the ends curved so that the main axis of the two rods when laid together forms a right angle; but the diameter through the conti uous ends is about equal to the diameter of the rung, and when finished as described and laid together their combined thickness is about equal to the thickness of the main part of the rung. The half-round portions are placed side by .side and pushed through the holes in the leg until the ends project beyond the walls of the tube 21, and the ends are then headed down upon the outside of the leg-tube. The four rungs thus secured to the four legs brace the legs very firmly and securely. The bottom end of the tube of each leg is preferably filled with a wooden or rubber plug to furnish a bearing of wood for that part of the chair which engages upon the floor.

When the back-frame is secured to the seat in the way described and the spindles 5, 6, and 7 are held by the hook engagement to the frame-tube 2 and held by screws to the seat, there is no possible yielding of the spindle in its connection, nor is there any possible way by which the spindles can escape from plaice without drawing the screws from the These several joints are equally applicable to other styles of furniture beside chairsas, for example, the stool part of the chair becomes a table if made of proper size and shape for that purpose, and the chair-back may be easily modified to form a mirror-support or similar part that rises from the tabular part of any piece of furniture.

The two bracket This latter fastening I do not deem What I claim is 1. A terminal for a tube, by means of which it may be secured to a flat object, comprising a plurality of bracket-arms, each arm made from two opposite stave-like parts of the tube, of which one part is bent outward from the axis of the tube, and the other part is bent across the axis of the tube, substantially as described.

2. A terminal for a tube, by means of which the tube maybe secured to a fiat object, comprising a plurality of bracket-arms, each arm made from two opposite stave-like parts of the tube, one of said parts being bent outward from the axis of the tube, and the other of said parts being bent across the axis of the tube into contact with the first part, substantially as described.

3. A terminal for a tube, by means of which the tube may be secured to a flat object, comprisin a plurality of bracket-arms, each arm made from two stave-like parts of the tube, of which one part is bent outward from the axis of the tube, and the other part bent across the axis of the tube, and the faces of the two parts are brought to contact, and the two parts are provided with registering perforations, substantially as described.

4. A means for securing a tube to another part, consisting of a terminal having a plurality of stave-like parts, arranged in pairs, each pair of staves having the inner faces of the members thereof in contact, and with the several pairs spreading to brace the tube in a plurality of directions, substantially as described.

5. A means for securing a spindle to a tubular frame part of a chair-back, comprising the combination of a tubular frame part provided with an opening through a wall thereof, a spindle having its end curved to a hook form and having the curve of the hook engaging against the wall of the tube opposite the opening, and the point of'the hook engaging against the wall of the tube on the same side thereof with the opening, and a seat part to which both the tubular frame and the spindle are secured, substantially as described.

6. A joint for securing brace-rods to a tube, comprising in combination, a tube provided with diametrically opposite holes, a plurality of rods with their ends made half-round in shape and with the half-round ends assembled to completely fill the holes, with the rods beyond the half-round spreading, and with the assembled half-round parts of the rods engaging through said holes in the walls of the tube, and with means for securing the assembled half-round ends external to the tube, substantially as described.

7. 'In a chair, in combination with tubular leg-standards each of which is provided with diametrical holes for the engagement therethrough of a chair-rung, rungs equal in number to the leg-standards, the ends of adjacent rungs being of a size and shape to fill, when assembled, the holes in a leg-standard and the assembled ends of adjacent rungs engaging through the leg-standard and secured by means of the projecting ends thereof, substantially as described.

8. A chair-seat having a rounded seat portion with notched extensions for the engagement therein of a bent tube comprising the back-frame, combined with said bent tube, the said bent tube having its terminals split, and divided into diverging attaching parts which engage against and are secured to said seat on the under side thereof, substantially as described.

9. In a chair, in combination with a seat, a back-frame, the side members of which eX- tend vertically across the edge of the seat, bracketterminals on the side members of said back-frame consisting of split and bent rungs uniting the legs below the seat part and havin as a joint connection the contiguous ends 0 adjacent rungs bent and arranged in parallel relation extending through a hole in and projecting beyond the leg and securep in place by a securing means on the projecting end, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I sign this specification in the presence of two witnesses.

JOHN F. WILMOT.

Witnesses:

CHARLES F. BURTON, WILLIAM M. SWAN. 

